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A fun evening, some good food, great company, and cheerful staff.
My favorites were the lemon potatoes (which appeared to have a generous heaping of something resembling zaatar), the herring salad (tahini seemed to work much better than mayo as a carrier), and the spicing on the red snapper.
I did, however, think the seafood was uniformly overcooked, which was a pity. But, as some of us discussed, that may be cultural preparation and not actually “overcooked”.
The thin, long slice on the octopus made it pretty chewy vs the usual cylindrical cut. The calamari was the best-cooked of that mixed grill platter (which also included tiger shrimp).
The dorade didnt seem seasoned inside, just the skin (which was lovely and crisp on top).
The seasoning on the red snapper (which I mistakenly called dorade for more than half the meal) was my favorite flavor of the night, well-rubbed across the entire inside of the butterflied fish.
The tomato base of the tagine was very flavorful, but the seafood in it, not surprisingly, was very overdone (at least the shrimp I ate, I don’t know about the calamari). Still, the sauce was a nice accompaniment to the fish that needed a little something. The rice, which looked seasoned, didn’t taste of much on its own but was lovely with the tomato sauce too.
It was heartening to see lots of families there later in the evening; it got busy for a Monday night!
Adding pics of the beets (which were made better by a bit of the feta from the salad), lemon potatoes, moussaka (others will have to speak to this, I didn’t eat it), grilled clams, and a full shot of the spiced, butterflied snapper and the whole grilled dorade.
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Maybe the company makes everything taste better (aww… apparently under my hard exterior, lies a less hardened middle layer), but I liked just about everything. A lot. It’s definitely the case that the seafood got lost in the sauce of the tagine, but the dish brought some needed saucing to all the other food & I liked the flavors/spicing. On the small plate side, I thought that the herring dish was very good, with all the others being “fine”. However, for me, having a place that will serve fresh fish and seafood (without ruining it) at a very reasonable price was a great thing. I didn’t think that the fish was dry or overcooked, although I liked the more flavored red snapper better &, yes, the Dorade might’ve been better fried. I liked the grilled octopus, calamari and shrimp quite a bit. All in all, a place that’s now ahead of my old Greek (Kyclades) or Turkish (Limon) stand-bys for when I want fresh fish and seafood.
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Hamido transports me to my childhood, growing up in a fishing community where the fish and clams we caught in the morning were on our dinner table in the evening. IMO the restaurant is a convivial setting for simply prepared, impeccably fresh fish at a great price point. I’d guess the cooking differs day-to-day, fish-to-fish; my personal experience is that it’s difficult to grill a whole fish with any real precision (perhaps Dean could weigh in here since it sounds like he’s cooked 1000s of dorade). However, whatever nits and nats I found with the cooking were far outweighed by the freshness of the fish, which I thought came through loud and clear with every bite.
I loved the tagine over rice, thought it great, winter comfort food. And yes, when one orders shellfish in a steaming hot bowl of tagine, the texture of the fish is going to change over time.
It was wonderful to see everyone! I think we need to solve the problem that one end of the table didn’t get to see the other end of the table. Maybe we should mix up seating halfway through the meal.
best,
ps I guess I should add for others who may visit the restaurant that Hamido is byob with no corkage fee.
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thank you for the wonderful pictures!
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You’re welcome!
I had the same thought. Maybe we should implement that custom in which everyone swaps seats between courses.
Round tables. We need to go to places with round tables. And/or what Ginny & I have done at the last 3 get togethers is to seat ourselves around different others each time. But switching seats during the meal might be interesting as well.
Or, we can insist that only one person at the table speak at a time, loudly enough for everyone to hear. Raising hands to speak would work, wouldn’t it? Don’t a couple of us have experience teaching/leading behaviorally disturbed groups that would be relevant here?
(does anyone reading this not realize that I’m not being serious - or maybe only somewhat? 
)
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A conch would be better.
we could all join a zoom call at the table.
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Twice the cacaphony = twice the fun!
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at large wine tastings, there’s a dynamic where entire tables have very different opinions of a wine. I wonder if there may have been some of that at hamido where patrice and I love the restaurant and as one radiates further away from where we were sitting, experience moved from postive to less positive.
best,
really the clams were the only thing I had I could fault (well, the green chile with the eggplant was a little hotter than I like to eat straight). (didnt try the beets, dont like 'em). The dorade was plenty moist but my attempt to portion it seemed to wind up with the end of the table not getting any skin! sorry! Theres a reason why some restaurants put olive oil etc on the table when they serve fish.
a long skinny table is going to be a problem anywhere we are though as I recall Indian Table was pretty good- I have not gotten a chance to sit near you yet! Hoping for better acoustics the next time around. Have a great trip!
